Ex-wife of SAC Capital's Cohen gets last chance to revise suit

Published 6:59 pm, Friday, September 20, 2013

Patricia Cohen, the ex-wife of SAC Capital Advisors founder Steven Cohen, was given a final chance to revise a suit claiming her former husband ran his hedge fund as a racketeering enterprise.

A judge Thursday granted a request by lawyers for Patricia Cohen to amend the suit for a third time, to add a claim against Steven Cohen's brother, an accountant who is a defendant in the case, and to fix a paragraph in the complaint that refers to the court's jurisdiction.

"The world is going to end someday and my job is to make sure this case ends before that day comes," U.S. District Judge William Pauley said in a hearing Thursday in Manhattan. "No further amendments will be permitted in this court."

Patricia Cohen sued in 2009, claiming Stamford-based SAC was engaged in insider trading, bank fraud, money laundering and other acts in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. She called SAC "the product of an ongoing racketeering scheme."

The suit was dismissed in 2011 by U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell, who said Patricia Cohen took too long to bring her claims. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York reinstated the suit, saying it was filed in time. Without ruling on the merits of her case, the court also said she had validly asserted claims that her ex-husband violated the racketeering law, committed fraud and breached his fiduciary duty.

While the case was on appeal, Holwell left the bench for private practice. The case was reassigned to Pauley in April.

On Nov. 21, Pauley will hear arguments on the defendants' request that he dismiss her latest complaint.